Althebum82

Face it folks:  your 2024 Minnesota Twins are not good.

As of the time of this writing, they are 17-2 vs CHW, COL, LAA, OAK.  These are 4 of the 5 worst teams in baseball.  They are 25-33 against everyone else.

In MLB, they are 10th in runs scored, but 22nd in ERA.

Thank you ownership for taking a WS contending team and intentionally making them worse.
Thank you for taking the TV money and not reinvesting it back in the team.
Thank you for not allowing the FO to go out and getting a quality SP or two to replace the ones that left.
Thank you for not ensuring your fans get to watch their team on television this year by building in a solid out clause.

The articles of who the Twins should trade for need to stop.  No trade is coming that will increase payroll or move a top 10 prospect.

As a lifelong Twins fan, I am utterly disgusted with this year.  You should be too.

One of the most underrated players for the Twins may have been Cesar Tovar.
His professional career became reality largely because of his close friend Gus Gil. On New Year’s morning in 1959 Cincinnati Reds General Manager Gabe Paul would sign Gil and at the urging of Gil, Cesar Tovar. Gil received a $2,000 signing bonus, Tovar got nothing.
Tovar’s first professional season was with Geneva of the NY-Penn League (Class D). He batted .252 in 87 games with 3 HR’s and 41 RBI’s. His 2nd summer was with Missoula in the Class C Pioneer League. He batted .304 with 12 HR’s and 68 RBI’s. In 1961 he was back in Geneva and he would hit .338 with 19 HR’s and 78 RBI’s, he also stole 88 bases in 100 attempts, shattering the NY-Penn League Record. In 1962 he played for Rocky Mount of the Carolina League (Class B), batting .329 with 10 HR’s and 78 RBI’s.
In spite of his success in the minors there was no clear path to the Reds. In 1963 the Reds would have a rookie named Pete Rose playing 2nd base, future major leaguer Bobby Klaus was in AAA, and his buddy, Gus Gil played in Macon (AA). The Reds would end up sending Tovar to the Twins on loan to their AAA team in Dallas-Ft. Worth. At Dallas-Ft. Worth manager Jack McKeon had Jim Snyder at 2B, so Tovar became a utilityman, mostly as an outfielder and shortstop. McKeon commented that “he has to be in my lineup and he has to be my leadoff man, but where do I play him?”
Cesar made 2 friends in his brief time in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Billy Martin, who was a minor league instructor in spring training and Tony Oliva.
Tovar returned to the Reds organization for the 1964 season, playing in San Diego. He hit .275 with 7 HR’s and 52 RBI’s, playing 3B, SS, 2B and the outfield.
On December 4, 1964, Tovar joined the Twins in a 1 for 1 trade with the Cincinnati Reds for Gerry Arrigo.
Manager Sam Mele gave Tovar a long look at 2nd base during spring training in 1965 in a competition with light hitting Jerry Kindall. Billy Martin who was now the Twins’ infield coach, again became Tovar’s tutor. Tovar would end up being sent to Denver of the Pacific Coast League to start the season.
Cesar would only appear in 18 games for the Twins in 1965, but as a sign of things to come, he would play 4 games at 2B, 1 game at SS, 2 games at 3B and 2 games in CF.
He appeared in 134 games in 1966 and had a WAR of 3.3. Tovar became only the 9th Venezuelan to reach the majors, and he would join two other countrymen, Luis Aparicio and Vic Davalillo in MLB.
For his entire Twins career he had a total of 26.0 WAR over his 7 years (3.7 average). From 1967 to 1971 he received votes for league Most Valuable Player with his best finish of 7th in 1967. In 1967 Carl Yastrzemski won the American League MVP Award, receiving 19 of the 20 1st place votes. Tovar received the other 1st place vote courtesy of Minnesota beat writer, Max Nichols.
Versatility was definitely part of his game. Much like Willi Castro in 2023, Tovar would be all over the field. In 1967 he played at least 6 games at 6 different positions (only missing out at 1B, C and P). He would play at least 5 different positions from 1969 to 1971. But 1968 was the most noteworthy. In 1968 he played 1 game at 1B, 18 games at 2B, 35 at SS, 75 at 3B, 37 in LF, 36 in CF, 11 in RF, 1 game where he caught and 1 game where he pitched.
What made 1968 noteworthy was that he became the 2nd player in major league history to play every position in a game. The date was September 22, 1968 against the Oakland A’s. What was even more special was that playing for the A’s that day was Bert Campaneris, who was the first to accomplish the feat in 1965.
According to an article written by Henry Palattella for www.mlb.com, Campaneris’ accomplishment was taken as a publicity stunt by Angels manager, Bill Rigney and he considered it “bush”. Campaneris ended up dropping a fly ball in the 6th inning that let in a run, and in the 8th inning he pitched and gave up 2 walks followed by a run-scoring single. But the most memorable inning was the 9th when Campaneris went in to catch. The Angels Ed Kirkpatrick started the inning with a single, stole 2nd base and eventually ended up at 3rd. While on 3rd there was a pitch in the dirt and he took off for home, there was a jarring collision at home plate between Kirkpatrick and Campaneris that nearly ended with both players coming to blows. The game would end up going extra innings, but without Campaneris who was send to the hospital due to a left shoulder injury caused by the home plate collision.
Tovar’s game was much different. The Twins were managed by Cal Ermer. They would end up in 7th place that season, and the game was played near the end of the season against the A’s who would finish in 6th place. Also the A’s were owned by Charley Finley who was famous for this type of “unique” event (including Bert Campaneris doing the same 3 years earlier).
Ermer started the game with Tovar on the mound. He ended up pitching a scoreless first inning where he got Campaneris to ground out, had a walk, a balk and struck out Reggie Jackson. Getting the toughest positions out of the way, Tovar caught in the 2nd inning. The Minneapolis Star Tribune would report that Tovar was in a semi-crouch stance due to “the shin guards being too long for his stubby legs”. In total for the game, Tovar fielded one ground ball, along with having 5 putouts. The team rewarded him with a color TV for his performance. It was the only game ever that Tovar was to pitch, catch or play 1st base.
Since Tovar accomplished this feat in 1968 only 3 other players have played every position in a game: Scott Sheldon on September 6, 2000 for the Texas Rangers against the Chicago White Sox, Shane Halter on October 1, 2000 (less than a month later) for the Detroit Tigers against the Twins, and finally, Andrew Romine on September 30, 2017 for the Detroit Tigers, also against the Twins.
Cesar Tovar definitely had a memorable career. He was a huge contributor while he was on the Twins. He played for 2 pennant winning teams and 2 teams that finished in 2nd.
He would stay with the Twins through the 1972 season when he was traded in the off-season to the Philadelphia Phillies for Joe Lis, Ken Reynolds and Ken Sanders. Lis would play for the Twins for the entire 1973 season and would be purchased by the Guardians in June of 1974, Sanders would only last until August of the 1973 season when he was released and Reynolds’ Twins career would end before it started when he was traded before the start of the 1973 season to the Brewers for Mike Ferraro.
After the 1973 season Tovar’s contract was purchased by the Texas Rangers. They purchased him because their manager, Billy Martin said “get me Cesar Tovar”.
He would play for the Rangers and Oakland Athletics in 1975, and the Athletics and New York Yankees, managed by Billy Martin in 1976. He would retire after the 1976 season.
Sadly Tovar passed away on July 14, 1994 in Caracus, Venezuela at the age of 54.

I’ve decided to write a series of posts regarding the depth in the Twins system, or possibly lack thereof depending on how you feel about a particular position. I plan to go position by position in hopes to shed some light on who could make an impact as early as 2023, or who may make an impact within a few years. I was inspired by Nick Nelson’s posts regarding the major league team, but didn’t want to duplicate what he did, so I will only be writing about the guys not on the 40-man roster, because Nick has done a great job analyzing the position at the major league level.
I will start with catchers, where there are more in the system than one probably thinks at the start. I used Roster Resource’s depth chart, which can be found on FanGraphs. Here is a note on each catcher in the Twins system not on the 40 man roster. I’ll list how they were acquired and what level I expect them to play at most this coming season.
Tony Wolters Acquired: Free Agency, 2023
Level: AAA
 
The Twins signed Wolters in January to have some depth within the minors if Christian Vazquez or Ryan Jeffers were to get injured. Wolters has bounced around to a few different teams in the past few years, but you likely remember him most as a member of the Colorado Rockies. He is a light hitting, backup, catcher at this point in his career, with a career .235/.321/.314 line in his time in the majors. He’s not a bad depth option because he has some major league experience, but the hope is he doesn’t have to get into too many games this season.
Chance Sisco Acquired: Free Agency, 2022
Level: AAA
 
Sisco was in the Twins system this past year as a well as a depth option and even with Ryan Jeffers injury, he was not called up to the ML squad. Once a highly regard prospect after being drafted in the 2nd round of the 2013 draft, Sisco never hit much in the majors, which leads to a noticeably clear ceiling. At this point, similar to Wolters, he is a depth option with some major league experience. His career line of .197/.317/337 is not fantastic, but it is nice to have a guy who can fill in a backup roll if needed. I’m not sure on where he compares to some of the other AAA catchers, but it’s never a bad thing to have multiple guys who have some major league experience if an injury does occur.
Grayson Greiner Acquired: Free Agency, 2023
Level: AAA
 
You may know Greiner most from his time with the Detroit Tigers, where he played from 2018-2021. He spent the 2022 season with Arizona, where he spent most of his time at AAA but made it into two major league games. Greiner, like Sisco and Wolters, is a depth option at the catcher position. He will likely play most, if not all, of the year at AAA where he will serve as a depth option in case of injury. His ML career slash of .201/.275/.307 is not far off from Wolters or Sisco and profiles as a depth piece where if you see him in the majors for too long, something went very wrong with injuries most likely.
David Bañuelos Acquired: Trade, 2017
Level: AAA
 
You may or may not remember, Bañuelos was acquired in December 2017 in a trade with the Seattle Mariners where the Twins sent international bonus pool money to Seattle in exchange for Bañuelos. Bañuelos has slowly climbed the minor league ranks since, finishing at AAA over the last two years. This may sound familiar, but he is a light hitting catcher who is a pretty solid depth piece this year. A career .207/.261/.325 hitter in 5 minor league seasons, Bañuelos has been tried at other positions, but not often, which says to me he is a catcher who can maybe play elsewhere in an emergency. Listed as the 4th possible catcher, at AAA, I would assume one of these guys may get a handful of at bats at 1B as well, but it may not be Bañuelos, since he hasn’t played there since 2017. At this point, he is a depth piece who will likely not see the majors unless something goes horribly wrong with the guys ahead of him on the depth chart.
 
Alex Isola Acquire: Draft – 29th Round, 2019
Level: AA
 
You may be thinking, finally, someone the Twins drafted. Don’t worry, there are a handful of others on this list as well. Isola was a late round pick, who has steadily climbed the minors ladder since being drafted in 2019. He made it up to Wichita, the Twins AA affiliate, this past season, where I would expect him to spend a chunk of the time this coming season as well. Isola is a career .264/.356/449 hitter in the minor leagues, which means his bat is a bit more of a weapon compared to others we have looked at to this point. Isola is relatively versatile as well, having played some 1B over the past two seasons as well. He also represented the Twins in the Arizona Fall League in 2022, where he mostly played 1B and he hit .228/.343/.316 in 16 games. Isola is 24 years old, so he likely projects as a career backup who can provide a little offense as well. I’m interested to see if he can carve a role in future years, but I don’t see 2023 being a year where that occurs, unless he takes a huge step forward combined with injuries occurring at the same time.
Kyle Schmidt Acquired: Draft – 33rd Round, 2019
Level: AA
 
Drafted out of the University of Richmond in 2019, where Schmidt tore the cover off the ball in his final season, he has slowly climbed the ranks, at an oddly similar pace to Isola. Schmidt’s minors career slash of .211/.296/.290 isn’t quite as potent, but he seems to still be developing potentially at the dish. Schmidt played at Fort Myers, Cedar Rapids, and also at Wichita, where he mostly played catcher, but also got into some games at 1B as well. If Schmidt can hit for more power, even becoming a guy who gets more extra base hits, he could potentially carve out a role as a backup catcher in the future.
Pat Winkel Acquired: Draft – 9th round, 2021
Level: A+/AA
 
Winkel has about a year and a half of minors games under his belt, so he still has a ways to go to get to the majors. He played at high-A Cedar Rapids this past year, where he hit decently well, and showed a little bit of power, hitting 6 HRs in 54 games played. As I mentioned, Winkel has a limited amount of minors experience, so plenty of time to still grow going forward, as he is only 23 years old. His career slash of .251/.341/.382 is something to build off, especially at the catcher position.
Noah Cardenas Acquired: Draft – 8th round, 2021
Level: A+
 
In the past two season, in just over 100 games, Cardenas has hit .264/.420/.418, which is really fun because that shows he’s hit for a little bit of power, while also hitting for a decent average as well. I know, it’s the low minors, so you can take it with a grain of salt. Cardenas might be a potential piece long term, but will have to continue to perform if he wants to make an impact at the major league level going forward. He’s known for his glove first, and that’s an okay place to be as a catcher, but if he can tap into a little more offensive firepower, he could be a fun piece to watch climb his way into the picture in the next handful of years.
Charles Mack Acquired: Draft – 6th round, 2018
Level: A+
 
Mack will be playing his age 23 season this coming year, but it will be his 5th year in the Twins system. Drafted in 2018, Mack has a career slash of .212/.315/346 in the minors. He played a little 1B this past season, so some versatility is always promising. He threw out 20% of potential base stealers, so he will need to improve in that area if wanting to be a long term option at catcher.
Dillon Tatum Acquired: Draft – 20th Round, 2021
Level: A+
 
Tatum was drafted in the 20th round out of UC Irvine after hitting .278 with 15 HR in his final year there. In two minor league seasons, he has hit .172/.320/.291, so the bat has not translated as some may have hoped, but it still has time to develop as he is 22 years old. Tatum also played a handful of games at 1B this past year, but his bat will have to improve to truly be a viable option at 1B. He had a 25% caught stealing rate, so not great, but he did only commit 2 errors in 437 chances at Fort Myers as well. He’s a glove first catcher, with some upside with the bat. Keep your eye on how his bat develops this year.
Nate Baez Acquired: Draft – 12th round, 2022
Level: A
 
Baez is the one of the newer members of this list to the organization. He has played in a total of 19 minor league games but hit decently well at Fort Myers when called up. He hit 3 HR in 58 PA, so hopefully the power can still continue to develop. In his last season at Arizona State, he hit .319/.403/.562 with 10 HR and 48 RBI. If the bat can continue to develop, he could be a very interesting piece. Baez also played 1B, 2B, 3B and even a handful of games in LF as well in college, so there could be some versatility. I would say the versatility is something to keep an eye on, ad he is someone who could end up at 1B if catching doesn’t work out.
Ricardo Olivar Acquired: Amateur FA – 2019
Level: A
 
Olivar was signed as an amateur free agent in July 2019 for $20,000. He struggled in 2021, but figured something out in 2022 as he led the Florida Complex League with a 1.047 OPS over 40 games. Olivar has also played all 3 OF positions and 2B, which makes him a very intriguing prospect. Does he stick at catcher, or does he transition to another position that gets his bat into the lineup a bit more? Time will tell, but as a catcher, he has a decent fielding percentage, but has not thrown out would be base stealers very well at all. He finished the year at Fort Myers in 2022 so I would suspect he spends the entire 2023 season there as well. He is only 21 years old as well, so he could be a sneaky break-out candidate as someone not many people are talking about right now.
Wilfri Castro Acquired: Amateur FA – 2017
Level: Rookie
 
Castro was signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2017 and has been in rookie ball since 2018. His minors career line of .204/.338/.305 doesn’t scream a bright future, but sometimes you don’t know with low-level prospects. With having been in the system for a few years, this may be the year that he finally puts something together, as he has only 86 professional games under his belt at this point. For his sake, the hope would be he can at least finish the year in Fort Myers after hitting some at rookie ball.
Ricardo Pena Acquired: Amateur FA – 2022
Level: Dominican Summer League
 
Pena got into 29 games after being signed in April of last year. He hit a little bit, but 29 games is a small sample size to judge a 17, soon to be 18, year old. Lots of time for development for a young prospect, and one I will keep an eye on to see how he is doing over the next few years to see if he is able to develop into a possible top-30 prospect for the Twins.  He will likely spend his time in the Dominican Summer League this coming year and hopefully build off of the development he had this past season.  
Carlos Silva Acquired: Amateur FA – 2023
Level: Dominican Summer League
 
The Twins signed Silva, the number 31 ranked international prospect for $1.1 million in January of this year. Jesse Sanchez, of MLB.com stated about Silva: “As for Silva, the right-handed hitter from Venezuela has a compact frame that suits him well behind the plate. He also has the skills to keep him there as he advances through the Minor Leagues. Silva impressed scouts with his pop times and arm strength, which has a chance to be an above-average tool in the future. He shows good footwork along with solid receiving and blocking skills. At the plate, Silva shows plus bat speed and the ability to drive the ball to all fields, especially his pull side. He trains out of the NBS Academy in Venezuela.”
This tells me that Silva is a guy to keep your eye on, but he likely won’t be major league ready for quite some time, as he is only 17 years old and will take quite some time to develop. He’s a prospect to be excited about, but not for probably 5-6 years realistically.
 
Let me know which catchers not on the 40-man roster you are most excited for, or maybe which you aren’t as excited about. I plan on releasing one of these for each position over the next handful of weeks. Let me know your thoughts!